A few years ago I met up with some of my former secondary school classmates who were doing business in Shanghai. One of the guys suggested we visit Kanas in Xinjiang as they still had some free time. Without hesitation we packed our bags and left the next day.

One of my classmates had been there before so he was chosen as tour guide and led the way. He suggested that we could take a lot of beautiful photos in Kanas Nature Reserve.

It was the most splendid and beautiful scenery I had seen. Such a picture-like nature reserve took our breath away. We felt as though we were in seventh heaven and I couldn’t be sure whether we were living in the real world or a dream.

During a walk we saw different kinds of birds and two squirrels, which followed us for a short distance. The leaves on the trees were colored gold, red and yellow during fall. The forests, dominated by spruce, birch, elm and Siberian larch, were spectacular and the semi-nomadic Kazakhs love to meet travelers.

As we moved from place to place there were exclamations of surprise among us and when the time came to return home we were exhausted but thoroughly satisfied. We had great fun and the trip was really enjoyable and unforgettable.